presidential candidates

[SR540Beaver]

Lisa,

 

What your missing is that those candidates that Democrats felt had gravitas and were serious candidates in 2008, scared the bejesus out of the other half of the nation and their ideas were considered laughable......just like today with a Republican debate. I stand by my statement that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

Think about it, Edwards was undone by sexual accusations just like Cain. Biden was/is a gaffe machine just like Perry. Kucinich is the liberal Paul. Obama was a guy with a paper thin resume and no worthy experience as evidenced by his administration. "Hope and change" is about as nebulous as "fair share" is today. Words that sound pretty, but have no real definition. I could have appreciated a Hillary administration over Obama any day, but she is the only one out of the 10 I listed. In hindsight, she would have done a far better job. In short, half the country was as unimpressed with the 2008 slate of Democrats as they are with the 2012 Republican slate. It just depends on which side of the fence one sits.

[JoeBob]

Okay. Get out your screen-grabbers:

 

I miss Hillary.

[packsaddle]

I kind of like Kucinich. He has a sense of humor. Heck, LOOK at the guy. He HAS to have a sense of humor. And I'll defend Biden. Yes he has a foot-in-mouth problem but at least there's something between his ears, unlike Perry.

But all this turmoil, partisan bickering...and for what?

As far as I am concerned Obama has done a pretty good job of perpetuating some really bad things that Bush originated. This is the part I have to wonder about...if you don't like Obama, where the heck were you while Bush was in? And if Romney is just another version of Obama, that kind of makes him just another version of Bush too!

 

Or have the American people been visited with the really large pod things in the middle of the night?

[Lisabob]

John "Breck Boy" Edwards was annoying and sort of fake, I'll grant you. But I don't think he was a total idiot. Biden is prone to saying the occasional dumb thing. But he knows where Russia is on a map and spent 36 years in the Senate, doing smart things like helping to secure loose nuclear material left over in the former USSR after the Cold War. His record is not comparable to Perry's.

 

In comparison, Sarah Palin's claim to fame was that she could see Russia from her porch. Herman Cain didn't know that China has had nukes since the 1960s and he couldn't understand why anyone should care about "Uz beki beki beki stan stan" (did I miss a "stan" in there?) Perry couldn't remember or explain his own policies. Newt thinks we should have a state on the moon. Santorum is making unfavorable comparisons to the French Revolution and trying to build up his repertoire of scare tactics about the guillotine. Everybody gets an occasional gaffe "mulligan," but these are on-going issues that make me wonder whether there is something in their water glasses at the debates. Surely, there must be better examples of the Republican species out there?

 

 

[Trevorum]

I'm no fan of Newt, but his comment about a permanent colony on the moon is not crazy, it's just about 100-200 years ahead of time. There is absolutely no doubt at all that we will permanently colonize the moon and other planets but that is like Queen Isabella talking about building a ski resort in the Rocky Mountains. It'll happen, but just one step at a time.

[acco40]

Obama is well spoken - as was Reagan. That, more than their policies helped them along.

 

Any republican who has been accused of being too liberal, like Romney, get's my attention.

 

Under Obama, in the year of the election, the economy is very slowly improving and the country is drawing down in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bin Laden, Kim Jong II and Gaddafi were eliminated during his tenure. Now was any of this due to Obama's actions? That is debatable but I feel it will influence the election.

 

But eight months is a long time.

 

About the only difference you will find between Obama and the way Romney has governed is that when Romney signed executive legislation as Governor he was white and Obama is Black.

 

Has Romney changed color? What makes Obama black? Could someone enlighten me on what makes up a "white" or "black" person.(This message has been edited by acco40)

[JoeBob]

LisaBob

 

Would you Google 'Sarah Palin see Russia'? And post back here the link you find to the Snopes article?

I'm typing on my phone and it doesn't copy links.

 

You're quoting Tina Fey, not Sarah Palin. What Palin really said, that you can see Russia from land in Alaska, is true.

 

When you quote a comedian to belittle a public figure, you undermine your own credibility. I'm sure you can find something else that is actually true to use againsr Sarah Palin.

[JoeBob]

15 hours later I'm back at a real keyboard. Lemme help:

 

http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/seealaska.asp

 

"Charles Gibson asked her what insight she had gained from living so close to Russia, and she responded: "They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska".

 

As to the question of whether one can actually see Russia from Alaska, Governor Palin was correct: such a view is possible from more than one place in Alaska. A Slate article on the topic noted that: "In the middle of the Bering Strait are two small, sparsely populated islands: Big Diomede, which sits in Russian territory, and Little Diomede, which is part of the United States. At their closest, these two islands are a little less than two and a half miles apart, which means that, on a clear day, you can definitely see one from the other."

 

Also, a 1988 New York Times article reported that: "To the Russian mainland from St. Lawrence Island, a bleak ice-bound expanse the size of Long Island out in the middle of the Bering Sea, the distance is 37 miles. From high ground there or from the Air Force facility at Tin City atop Cape Prince of Wales, the westernmost edge of mainland North America, on a clear day you can see Siberia with the naked eye."

 

You're welcome.

 

 

 

[scoutingagain]

" And if Romney is just another version of Obama, that kind of makes him just another version of Bush too!"

 

Exactly the point. As far as I can tell it seems Republicans care less about actual policy than having someone from their tribe in office. Face it. If Romney had won the nomination in 2008 and the general election he would have implemented Romneycare as a national health care reform and Republicans would be singing the praises of the individual mandate as the epitome of individual responsibility. This has been their rational for coming up with the approach for the last 15 years. Romney would also have continued the corporate bailouts under Bush. He would have done exactly what Obama did with the auto industry, forced them into bankruptcy and reorganize. In fact as a former CEO he probably would have been more hands on in acutually running the companies than Obama was. He would have followed conventional economic advice and passed some type of stimulus package.

 

As Governor, he did not do much to dramatically reorganize state Govt. He tweeked around the edges but no major reforms. He did not raise taxes, but he is not a no new revenue zeolot. He significantly raised fees everywhere his executive authority allowed. He took no action on social issues like abortion or gay marriage.

 

In short he was a centrist governor that made fiscally responsible decisions. He left office relatively unpopular. He will likely not be able to carry his home state. Anyone expecting dramatic changes to government should not expect them from Romney based on his record.

 

But if your more concerned about having a Republican in the White House, he's your best bet.

 

SA

SA

 

 

[scoutingagain]

I might add I was dissapointed that Huntsman did not get more attention. Seems like a rational fiscal conservative that actually has been consistent through his career has no place in the current Republican Party.

 

SA

[Lisabob]

JB: You beat me back to the I&P forum. So, sure, Palin didn't actually say that she could see Russia from her front porch (and she didn't ask about the talent portion of the debates, either). But what made Tina Fey so funny is that what she did was so close to believable, that you had to ask "wait, was that...real?" And that's the point about Palin. If you have to ask, it isn't good.

 

At any rate, I grew up in a place where you can see Canada across the lake. While I will lay claim to some special hockey knowledge (thank you, Hockey Night in Canada!) and we thought little of going across the border for dinner, I can't claim to be an expert on Canadian politics on that basis alone.

 

 

[Beavah]

I miss Hillary.

 

JoeBob lets loose with a statement like that, and nobody takes him up on it??

 

Just lettin' yeh know I at least was payin' attention, Joebob.

 

I was thinkin' the other day that in actual fact, Hillary Clinton has made a superb Secretary of State. She's been marvelously astute, respectful of other nations but firm, and is a master of manipulating people usin' their underlying interests. Here we have the whole world, even the Arab world, siding with the U.S. over Syria and condemning the Russians and the Chinese. And in the same month, we have the EU takin' the lead on pushing punitive sanctions against Iran. That's just masterful.

 

Great use of soft power, great long-term vision for advancing American interests. Probably the smartest appointment Obama made, and quite a change from da Bush years when it seemed like we couldn't even get our friends to support us on obvious stuff without payin' 'em.

 

Beavah

 

[Eagledad]

>>I was thinkin' the other day that in actual fact, Hillary Clinton has made a superb Secretary of State. She's been marvelously astute, respectful of other nations but firm, and is a master of manipulating people usin' their underlying interests. Here we have the whole world, even the Arab world, siding with the U.S. over Syria and condemning the Russians and the Chinese. And in the same month, we have the EU takin' the lead on pushing punitive sanctions against Iran. That's just masterful.

[drmbear]

I've been bothered more and more by the idea that Scouting, an organization that claims to have as a central core principal of citizenship, has established guidelines of discrimination. I'm not with him on much, and don't really consider him much of a leader (and all the Republicans are a disappointment), but on this matter I agree with Romney. Is Scouting really going to lag behind history on this? Just as anyone upholding ideas of racism, thinking policies of the 50's and early 60's as okay, would be considered a dinosaur, most youth of today get it that issues sexual orientation are just not that big of a deal. And is a humanist really such a threat to the principals of Scouting?

[Beavah]

As for Syria, the US is following the middle east, not the other way around.

 

Exactly.

 

B